Maghernaul rock art: Damage and desecration

  

Prehistoric rock art panel. Maghernaul, Isle of Doagh, Donegal, Republic of Ireland
Image credit Ken Williams

 

 

A guest feature by Ken Williams

 

This is one of the very, very few panels out of the 25-30 that have been recorded in the area that was still easy to locate and visit. On my last visit the field was quite overgrown but has been mostly cleared so I thought even more would be visible. Unfortunately as you can see from the photo the situation has gotten worse. I couldn’t find the panel where I thought it was but stumbled across it (or a tiny part of it) when making my way back up the track. I was literally dumbstruck, part of the panel was under the tyre tracks and the rest was covered in clay and stones between them. Seems to me this is more likely due to pure luck rather than design. The panel has been clearly visible in the field since at least 2007.

 

The area has a bad record when it comes to management of the archaeology, several unique panels were blown up in the 1980’s and blasting has continued right up to the last few years as more houses are built. It’s impossible to check a number of very rare designs as the fields have become massively overgrown and neglected.

 

See also The Modern Antiquarian http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/6129/magheranaul.html